Novel concept of long-haul trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells

A scale-model hydrogen fuel-cell truck has been designed and its performance tested to gain an improved understanding of the technical challenges of full- scale trucks employing on-board storage and hydrogen fuel-cell systems. A 1/14th scale battery-based replica of a Scania R470 Highline truck was equipped with two 30-W PEM fuel cell stacks and their control units, four metal-hydride hydrogen bottles storing in total 6 g hydrogen. A bank of super-capacitors was employed to smooth out the load placed on the fuel cells and meet the maximum demand of the truck. The hydrogen fuel cell system with the super-capacitor buffer was able to maintain stable operation and continuously supply the dynamic load of the truck over a full range of driving conditions, including during purging periods of the fuel cells. The fuel cell system was found to be more responsive to the changing load than the original batteries. The gravimetric energy density of the fuel cell system was measured to be about 30% better than the original batteries of the truck.